Dubious Distinction: Crackberry Is Word of the Year

John Wiley & Sons, publisher of Webster's New World College Dictionary, have deemed "Crackberry" the word of the year. Sayeth the press release: "Crackberry, winner of the 2006 Word-of-the-Year contest among the dictionary's staff, sums up the ubiquitous thumbing of keypads on handheld devices throughout the country. And it does double duty, denoting both the device and the user. Whether on BlackBerries -- the PDA's that spawned this latest appellation -- or cellphones, or other handheld devices, people hunched over these tools are a common sight. That devout-looking hunch itself, note Webster's New World editors, is called the Crackberry prayer, homage to this latest obsession." I don't own one of the things precisely because nothing makes me want to choke a coworker, colleague, source or friend as much as when in the middle of a conversation, he or she checks his email. Even worse is when he thinks he's doing it on the sly.

Dubious Distinction: Crackberry Is Word of the Year

Featured Stories